Courtney Love and her band Hole at the Shepherd's Bush Empire brought out the disaffected teenager in us all. Rating: * * * *

"WHY do women see me as a model? There haven't been too many of us," Courtney Love said during a 1994 interview. She was referring not to the entire number of female recording artists, of which there have been plenty – but more specifically the woman who makes it big in the boys' world of rock.

Today, the same is still true, if not more so. Despite the "never-had-it-so-good" talk that surrounds women in pop, gravel-voiced ladies that spit and drool and play guitar remain pretty thin on the ground. As a result, Love is still held in high regard by any girl who remembers expressing their teen angst in ripped tights, and marker-pen messages on school bags.

Now, with crimped blonde mane, sparkling head band, designer dress and heels, Love has become a sort of grunge dolly. No original Hole member remains – where once there was one man and two women, today she is backed by an all-male band, which features Londoners Micko Larkin on guitar and drummer Stu Fisher.

"We are actually a real band," she said at one point, as if trying to convince herself. Yet Hole was never about camaraderie. It was about Courtney: widow of Kurt Cobain, vitriolic singer, Hollywood star, tabloid staple. Yet before all that, Love was a believer in the religion of rock, worshipping stars as deities and in turn becoming the worshipped. In this sense, she is at times closer to Patti Smith than any other performer, a fact highlighted by the opening rendition of the Patti-esque Pretty On The Inside – a track from Hole's 1991 debut of the same name – that segued into a cover of Sympathy For The Devil by the Rolling Stones, one of Smith's biggest inspirations.

Skinny Little Bitch, a song from Hole's forthcoming album Nobody's Daughter, was followed by Miss World and Violet, from 1994's Live Through This. The last two were rousing, a reminder of Hole in their prime, all dulled impulses and casual aggression. As is often the case with a comeback, things weren't quite as loose as they used to be. The band were well rehearsed – good for the classics, but not so good when the unfamiliar songs are played with too much restraint. But you can't stop Love falling apart: she was soon complaining of melting make-up and bleeding fingers.

The 1998 alt dancefloor filler Celebrity Skin preceded an acoustic encore that began with Doll Parts, another from Live Through This. "I am doll eyes, doll mouth, doll legs," Love sang, teasing out the disaffected teen from many in the audience once more.